diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 7c5cc199c4b..dc80f7e5d85 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -76,6 +76,10 @@
 - PHP-FPM SAPI:
   . Fixed bug #53527 (php-fpm --test doesn't set a valuable return value). (fat)
 
+- Readline extension:
+  . Fixed bug #53630 (Fixed parameter handling inside readline() function).
+    (jo at feuersee dot de, Ilia)
+
 - SOAP extension:
   . Fixed possible crash introduced by the NULL poisoning patch.
     (Mateusz Kocielski, Pierre)
diff --git a/ext/readline/readline.c b/ext/readline/readline.c
index 9bd443106e2..e9901bf7a14 100644
--- a/ext/readline/readline.c
+++ b/ext/readline/readline.c
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ PHP_FUNCTION(readline)
 	int prompt_len;
 	char *result;
 
-	if (FAILURE == zend_parse_parameters(ZEND_NUM_ARGS() TSRMLS_CC, "s!", &prompt, &prompt_len)) {
+	if (FAILURE == zend_parse_parameters(ZEND_NUM_ARGS() TSRMLS_CC, "|s!", &prompt, &prompt_len)) {
 		RETURN_FALSE;
 	}